Karaca Cave

The Karaca Cave (known locally as Karaca Mağarası) is a network of caves located near the Turkish town of Torul.

Although the cave is known by the people living in that region, it became open to tourism as a result of the scientific research conducted by Sukru Eroz, a geological engineer from Cebeli Village, between the years 1983-1990. [ [http://www.kulturturizm.gov.tr/EN/BelgeGoster.aspx?17A16AE30572D313404F9755767D76FF9967B13382E62777 :: Republic Of Turkey Ministry Of Culture And Tourism :: ] ]

Prof. Dr. Remzi Dilek and his team from the department of Geological Engineering in K.T.U (Karadeniz Technical University) contributed a lot of research and scientific studies of the cave.

As a result of these studies, it was opened to tourism in 1996 after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism was informed and the cave was officially registered.

Location of the cave

As it is known, caves were first natural shelters used by human beings. Therefore, they attract the attention of many researchers and compel them to study them. Moreover, discoveries of the beauties and mystery in the caves can make some people happy. Apart from this, the caves provide the facilities for performing exciting sports (rock climbing included), as well as furthering the science of speleology.

Karaca Cave is surrounded by the borders of Cebeli Village, which is in Torul. It is 17 km far away from the city center and 1550 m high from the sea level. The cave attracts the most tourists in Gumushane.

The cave can be arrived by following the 4 km road which is separated from the 12th km of the Gumushane-Trabzon highway. There are restaurants and other small stores located near the cave.

Stratigraphic-lithological Characteristics

In the area extending between Gumushane and Torul, super-crustacean formations have been extensively scattered out. These generally consist of andezitic and basatic lavas, lufs and agglomerates. Total thickness of this line reaches 1000 meters. Partly intermissionary additives varying between 100 m and 200 m in thickness and consisting of limestone, marn and gres draw attention. Karaca Cave developed in abundantly cracked massive limestone encircled by volcanits in this serial.

Constitution of the cave

The cave of Karaca is rich in formation dripstones. These dripstones are in different shapes and colours. Inside the cave, there are dripstone stalactites, stalagmites, and travertines. There are also many cave roses located on some travertines and stalagmites.

The pools of dripstones are very large in the cave, especially the ones through the end of cave, which have up to 1 meter depth.

The travertines' colours can range from white to dark blue, which proves a high density of iron and magnesium minerals in the water.

The shape of the cave

The cave lies on a horizontal slant, having four different halls connected to each other. Two of these halls are also divided in half by the wall dripstones (Thus, one can argue that the halls are six in number, not four).

The height of the cave entrance is about 6 meters, the height of an average man; but through the inside the height increases regularly and the shape of cave becomes like a funnel. The distance between the entrance and the end is roughly 105 meters in length. The average height is 18 meters. The total area is 1500 square meters.

Existence of water in the cave

There is no stream in the cave of Karaca, but water leaking through the cave ceiling still provides water for the formation of dripstones. Other than those, there are some travertine pools and ponds inside the cave. The ponds, which are at the entrance of the third and fourth halls, have a high water content.

Atmosphere of the Karaca Cave

There is no significant air circulation in the cave; therefore, the humidity rate in its atmosphere increases relativity from the entrance to the inner parts of the. The increase rate is around 65% at the entrance, 70% in the interior. The humidity can rise up to 75% in the cave's interior. The air inside the cave is cooler than outside the cave in summertime and warmer in winter. Because of this, it is considered to be a micro air conditioned area.

The Karaca Cave has been open to visitors since 1996.

References

External links

There are nice pictures of the cave in this link:
* http://www.karacamagarasi.com/karacagaleri.htm